The First 25th: Merry Christmas (and Happy New Year, a few weeks late)!

Well, the first of the 15 25s has passed. It was Christmas, and in my family, it was a three-day affair, so it was definitely celebrated. The pre-show involved a lot of decorating (the tree, presents, cookies, my feet):

Second Grade Sarah Turner

Mom likes to get us ornaments that commemorate special events (graduation, the year my brother carved the turkey for the first time at Thanksgiving, my time in NYC, etc.) As you can see, 2012 was a memorable year.

We compete to see who can get their star closest to the top. This year I won.

Our wrapping skills were sharp this year.

Cookies! I didn’t mean for the eyes to be so demonic…

The main event involved a lot of destroying (presents, food, my ego in Nok hockey):

This was the funniest incident over the holidays. Apparently, this was in response to something from Thanksgiving.

Nathan, sporting the Spiderman Snuggie, which was a hit at our White Elephant gift exchange.

One of my favorite gifts. So true. So nerdy.

And I rang in the new year with friends.

I don’t think this is what they had in mind, but whatever. No kisses for this girl, under the mistletoe or on New Year’s. Maybe next year? I mean, this year?

I had the whole week off (huge job perk), which I used to both be productive in cleaning and organizing and lay around on my couch binge-watching Netflix. It was a pretty good break, and I feel like the celebration of the 25th stretched well into the new year.

And then I got sick.

Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, I wasn’t really able to take a sick day, so I went to work (but didn’t do much else). Last week was kind of a haze and I’m only just now starting to feel like my head isn’t clouded in a fog of sickness. Hence the lack of posts.

But there are some exciting things coming up in 2016, including four improv shows starting at the end of the month, and a reading this weekend. If you’re in the Twin Cities, head on over to Honey in NE Minneapolis at 7 PM on Sunday, where I’ll be part of a stellar line-up of readers, including Kao Kalia Yang, whose The Latehomecomer is definitely worth a read.

And you’re invited to HUGE Improv Theater Jan. 31, Feb. 7 and Feb. 14. You can be my Valentine! My group, Contraband, will be performing as part of Improv A-Go-Go, which is pay what you want and features five groups every Sunday starting at 8. Check us out, and look for my next post, where I reveal this year’s theme. Get. Excited.